Pathfinder Battles Preview: Starting Small with the Shattered Star

Friday, August 3, 2012

August is upon us, and we've finally reached the release month for the Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures! We'll debut the set at Gen Con Indy, which means that the complete shipment is currently sitting in our warehouse, which has picked up a distinctive smell of fresh plastic. I love the smell of fresh plastic in the morning. It smells like... Victory.

Anyway, you guys are going to explode with delight when you get the Rise of the Runelords figures in your hands. They are absolutely amazing, and set a new standard for prepainted plastic miniatures.

A standard we're set to exceed with the very NEXT set, the Shattered Star! This third official set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures (produced in cooperation with our friends at WizKids) contains 55 figures, and is currently slated for a January 2013 release. We're still working on some of the final details on price and packaging, so it'll be several more weeks before we have the product pages for this set up and running here on paizo.com, but we don't want to let pesky details like that get in the way of revealing some of the amazing figures we've been working on over the last few months.

Even though we haven't yet revealed a single Shattered Star mini, we're actually much farther ahead in the production process with this set than we've been at a similar period with other sets. We've approved about 90% of the paint masters so far, and are only waiting on a couple of figures. Preview images from the set should be landing here every Friday until I run out of them, and believe me when I say you're in store for some absolutely astounding miniatures.

Before I get to today's initial reveals, I want to talk briefly about spoilers and the nature of previewing a set of miniatures for an adventure campaign that hasn't been published yet—it's going to be a bit difficult, and you probably ARE going to have a few minor details and surprises spoiled by reading these weekly blogs.

I'll take care to hide truly egregious spoilers (“this guy is the arch villain of adventure three, but he's the PCs' best friend for the first two adventures, LOL”) behind spoiler tags, but as the entire point of showing off these miniatures is to, well, SHOW OFF THESE MINIATURES, I'm not going to hide every image behind a spoiler tag. If you're the type of player or GM who gets bent out of shape knowing that certain monsters are scheduled to appear in an adventure you haven't played yet, it may be a good idea to keep your eyes away from this space for the foreseeable future.

‘Cause I'm going to spill some secrets.

Let's start with some small ones, from the very first volume of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Shards of Sin.

Up first is the lowly Mite, a rank-and-file monster from the pages of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This standard Small fey creature plays an important role in the opening adventure (and this isn't the only mite in the set, either). I love how gross WizKids' master painter made this little bugger, and I can't wait to get a whole pile of them to add to my personal collection.

Speaking of giant piles of monsters I'd quite like to add to my collection, allow me to introduce you to a derro known as Caedimus!

Good Caedimus is a rank-and-file derro. We've given him a specific name to differentiate him from the other derro in the set (which we'll show off soon), but like the Mite, Caedimus is currently slated at the common rarity.

I'm hoping to get a bunch of him.

That's it for this week. Although both of these critters are Small, they're a good intro to the set, which in future weeks will include lots of much, much, much larger figures.

We're on the hunt for the Shattered Star! Come back to this space next Friday for a look at some more awesome minis coming your way in January!

The derro is nice, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it, but the mite is PERFECT. I have never used mites in my campaigns before, but I think that I'm likely to start once I have this mini (in bulk).

I have to second what Green Left Eye said. I have always converted mites found in published adventures into other humanoids (goblins, kobolds, ANYTHING). But if the minis look like that...I'm going to be buying them up and creating an adventure to showcase them! Really psyched to see what the other mite looks like!

I for one relish spoilers. Even if you didn't show any of them off I would still buy, thats how good they are. Mites and Derros thats awesome, what a great addition to the mini lines. I am eagerly anticipating the AP, the mini's. Hopefully, my game group will come down from their snobbery and distate for published adventures, and join in on gettting to know Varisia up close and personal with RotRL, Curse of the crimson throne, second darkness and capping it off with Shattered Star and PFS Year of the Risen Rune. But I have little faith, while my AP's and minis languish from disuse, they are filling their days with silly little miniatures depicting bugs, demons, and "space marines", along with boring role play sessions of "shadow running". Sigh.

ok i just got one word for those two its WOW ! when i was reading bestiary and find these two i was like boff they dont look so cool but now thats i see the mini of them, i so want to put them in my next ap. :P seriously the derro paint its just too fantastic LOVE IT !!!
ps: sorry for the crappy english

Awesome! Love that you're still chugging away with the tiny bits of plastic crack that I crave so desperately.

No idea if one shows up in Shattered Star, but I (and many others) are watching and hoping each and every day that Paizo will produce a gargantuan green dragon to fill a certain spot on our shelves. =)

I guess you've not had to deal with that before as RotRL has been out for so long, but shouting to the world which creatures are in the adventure is not cool, especially as you get to the more unique critters.

Just like how to RotRL Player's Guide featured ads in the back which were massive spoilers for the adventure.

I really don't think it's sound advertising policy to undermine the play (and reading) experience of your APs for a number of customers.

(Note: I have completely revamped the page with my first delve into javascripting. The page should appear exactly the same as the other galleries, but if anyone encounters any errors please let me know. The javascripting I added allows me to add new minis/information a lot more efficiently, and now I can easily move the mini order around.)

I guess you've not had to deal with that before as RotRL has been out for so long, but shouting to the world which creatures are in the adventure is not cool, especially as you get to the more unique critters.

Just like how to RotRL Player's Guide featured ads in the back which were massive spoilers for the adventure.

I really don't think it's sound advertising policy to undermine the play (and reading) experience of your APs for a number of customers.

The Blog wrote:

Before I get to today's initial reveals, I want to talk briefly about spoilers and the nature of previewing a set of miniatures for an adventure campaign that hasn't been published yet—it's going to be a bit difficult, and you probably ARE going to have a few minor details and surprises spoiled by reading these weekly blogs.

I'll take care to hide truly egregious spoilers (“this guy is the arch villain of adventure three, but he's the PCs' best friend for the first two adventures, LOL”) behind spoiler tags, but as the entire point of showing off these miniatures is to, well, SHOW OFF THESE MINIATURES, I'm not going to hide every image behind a spoiler tag. If you're the type of player or GM who gets bent out of shape knowing that certain monsters are scheduled to appear in an adventure you haven't played yet, it may be a good idea to keep your eyes away from this space for the foreseeable future.

I guess you've not had to deal with that before as RotRL has been out for so long, but shouting to the world which creatures are in the adventure is not cool, especially as you get to the more unique critters.

Just like how to RotRL Player's Guide featured ads in the back which were massive spoilers for the adventure.

I really don't think it's sound advertising policy to undermine the play (and reading) experience of your APs for a number of customers.

The Blog wrote:

Before I get to today's initial reveals, I want to talk briefly about spoilers and the nature of previewing a set of miniatures for an adventure campaign that hasn't been published yet—it's going to be a bit difficult, and you probably ARE going to have a few minor details and surprises spoiled by reading these weekly blogs.

I'll take care to hide truly egregious spoilers (“this guy is the arch villain of adventure three, but he's the PCs' best friend for the first two adventures, LOL”) behind spoiler tags, but as the entire point of showing off these miniatures is to, well, SHOW OFF THESE MINIATURES, I'm not going to hide every image behind a spoiler tag. If you're the type of player or GM who gets bent out of shape knowing that certain monsters are scheduled to appear in an adventure you haven't played yet, it may be a good idea to keep your eyes away from this space for the foreseeable future.

This is NOT a great photo, but it should give you an idea of the size comparisons: LINK.

And I agree with Lisa that the painting on this set is a step above Rise of the Runelords, which is really saying something.

Actually it's a great photo, perfect for the job. Now I can judge scale I can add a second WOW! Expecially on that derro. And theres more!!! January may be a long wait, never have I felt so like wishing away the passage of my days (well until end of August, then January - damn those extra 4 months in between)

Erik, judging by the photo from Facebook, isn't that derro about half as big around as it should be? Right height, but way, way too skinny. I mean, they have to be skinny, but come on, that's just... bizarre.

I guess you've not had to deal with that before as RotRL has been out for so long, but shouting to the world which creatures are in the adventure is not cool, especially as you get to the more unique critters.

Just like how to RotRL Player's Guide featured ads in the back which were massive spoilers for the adventure.

I really don't think it's sound advertising policy to undermine the play (and reading) experience of your APs for a number of customers.

I don't know what to tell you, man. I do not want to hide these miniatures behind spoiler tags.

I get what you are saying, but... do you not look at book covers? I see this in the same light, frankly. I'm going to try very, very hard not to reveal story spoilers, but if it's going to bother you to know that you're going to encounter mites at some point during this AP, don't read the Friday blogs.

Erik, judging by the photo from Facebook, isn't that derro about half as big around as it should be? Right height, but way, way too skinny. I mean, they have to be skinny, but come on, that's just... bizarre.

I love that mite. Outstanding. Planning on running this AP right after GenCon, so I'll have to find another use for them after January, but I'll think of something. Here's a question: will there be much crossover between creatures in RotRL and SS? I don't mean the miniature sets,but in the APs? I'm trying to get geared up here.

Erik, judging by the photo from Facebook, isn't that derro about half as big around as it should be? Right height, but way, way too skinny. I mean, they have to be skinny, but come on, that's just... bizarre.

Erik, judging by the photo from Facebook, isn't that derro about half as big around as it should be? Right height, but way, way too skinny. I mean, they have to be skinny, but come on, that's just... bizarre.

Erik, judging by the photo from Facebook, isn't that derro about half as big around as it should be? Right height, but way, way too skinny. I mean, they have to be skinny, but come on, that's just... bizarre.